Portable electronic devices, including but not being limited to mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), remote controllers, game consoles, portable radios and the like, have become more and more common, even a part of people's daily life. These devices assist in organizing people's life. Some of these devices provide communication with other people.
While the technical and functional requirements of these devices have developed, interfaces of these devices has developed as well. In some devices the body of the device has been covered by a covering lid. The lid, pivoted by the cover hinge, can be rotationally moved relatively to the device body. Sometimes the covering lid has acted as a functional part of the body having, for example, a loudspeaker or a microphone.
In yet some known devices, the lid has been coupled to the body by the hinge. The lid has acted as a kind of first body or the like. The first body has a display when the device is opened, and the second body has a keypad. When closed the hinge has simply folded the two bodies together thereby covering the device. However, the hinge has always been observable thereby making the device less elegant.
Furthermore, the design and structure of the known hinging and covering constructions have actually been quite clumsy, if not to say simple.
There is a need to find clever ways to handle electronic devices while meeting the ergonomics and relatively attractive appearance of the device. The electronic devices can have mechanical requirements like opening-closing function(s). Thus, the devices face mechanical and functional challenges while trying to achieve mass production with reasonable quality in the consumer market.